Course Competition

Where most golfers would survey the situation and choose, say, a 3-iron or maybe a 5-iron, Raymond Yi is accused of trying to get the result he wanted with a shooting iron.

Marcelo Bautista—a Los Angeles teacher—and his uncle, Gustavo Resendiz, were enjoying a leisurely game of golf in late July at the Los Serranos Golf and Country Club in Chino, Calif.

Bautista told a Los Angeles news­paper that the foursome behind them grew impatient and began hitting balls to the hole they were occupying, so he hit one of the balls back. He was soon confronted by Yi, a reserve deputy with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department who was brandishing a gun.

Published reports indicate that a teed-off Yi flashed a badge and ordered Bautista to retrieve the ball that he hit. When Bautista refused, Yi reportedly pursued him, cocked his gun and threatened Resendiz.

Yi’s attorney, John Barnett, disagrees with that account of the incident. “As he walked toward them, one person swung a putter at my cli­ent’s head,” Barnett says. “My client backed up, removed his gun and pointed it toward them and told them to back up. He pulled it in self-defense.”

Yi—whose permit to carry a gun was expired at the time—has been charged with assault with a firearm, which is punishable by up to five years in prison. The case was set for pretrial hearing on Dec. 20.

BEAR-LY LEGAL?
Loggers Question Validity of Warrant After State Relocates Their Furry Friend

If a tree falls in the forest and traps a bear cub, is there any hope for that cub? The answer to that variation on an age-old philosophical question is, happily, yes.
Rocky Perkett of Coos Bay, Ore., and his son Jonathan rescued the bear from a logging tract in 2003. They named the trapped female cub Windfall and took her home, where they fed her such delicacies as pizza and Dr. Pepper. They also gave her showers and blow-dried her fur afterward during their two years together.

But then the state police got wind of Wind­fall, and trouble was a-bruin. “We received information from concerned citizens,” says Lt. Walt Mar­kee of the Oregon State Police Fish and Wildlife Division. “It’s unlawful to have a bear in captivity,” he adds.

State police obtained a search warrant to enter the Perketts’ home and remove Windfall. She was transported to a California wildlife facility while attempts were made to find her a permanent home.

The Perketts say, through published reports, that Windfall was not caged, that she was free to come and go, and that she even learned to use doorknobs to enter the home. They insist that the search warrant was invalid and have hired an attorney to try to have Windfall returned to them.

“Everything they done here was un­legal,” Rocky Perkett was quoted as saying. “I hope they bring her back. … We’re mountain men. We took her because she was dying and we loved her.”

Windfall, who is too tame to be released into the wild, faces eutha­nasia if a permanent home cannot be found.

Written by Brian Sullivan; stories by ocregister.com, katu.com; research by Wendell LaGrand